Hagia Sophia From the Blue Mosque

It is rather amazing that the Hagia Sophia is still standing today. It has been damaged and partially collapsed from being sacked, burned and caught in innumerable earthquakes. But never destroyed. Items and icons in it however, have not been so lucky. Contrary to what you might think, it wasn't the conversion of the cathedral into a mosque in 1453 that erased the icons and treasures of the church but mostly the byzantine iconoclasm (726) and the fourth crusade (1202-1204) that took care of most of the relics of antiquity - both christian acts. The former having smashed them, the latter having expropriated them to churches in the west of europe. By the time the Ottoman Turks took control, the church was badly neglected. In it's conversion to a mosque, it was actually strengthened, restored, renovated and added to.

Now it is a museum and I imagine that there is some controversy about that.

Hagia Sophia From the Blue Mosque

It is rather amazing that the Hagia Sophia is still standing today. It has been damaged and partially collapsed from being sacked, burned and caught in innumerable earthquakes. But never destroyed. Items and icons in it however, have not been so lucky. Contrary to what you might think, it wasn't the conversion of the cathedral into a mosque in 1453 that erased the icons and treasures of the church but mostly the byzantine iconoclasm (726) and the fourth crusade (1202-1204) that took care of most of the relics of antiquity - both christian acts. The former having smashed them, the latter having expropriated them to churches in the west of europe. By the time the Ottoman Turks took control, the church was badly neglected. In it's conversion to a mosque, it was actually strengthened, restored, renovated and added to.

Now it is a museum and I imagine that there is some controversy about that.